
Challenges faced by Luka village due to mining activities.extract from Rustenburg Review 2011.
Luka is a village in the north of Rustenburg. We are located in heart of the platinum mining region. Our great grandparents lost their land to the Afrikaner settlers and bought back sections with their own money. We built our own church, schools, sunk our won boreholes. We planted corps for our use and every family had a herd of cattle. Platinum mining came into lives in the 1960’s.We were not consulted about this.
We have lived in Luka for over a century. Now we are surrounded by mines and our land is slowly been turned into mine dumps.
The following mines operate around us: Impala Platinum Mine and its subcontractors: Omnia,Mineral Process , Comcor and the mines in which the Royal Bafokeng Authority have shares.
List of important issues
Environmental Impacts:
– Cracks of houses from blasting and underground vibrations
– Noise pollution: Ventilation shafts, blasting and machines and equipment
– Air pollution from slime dams and blasting
Employment Impacts:
– Mines offer no employment opportunities to locals
Development Issues:
– Housing: lack of adequate housing and cracked housing
– Roads: roads not tarred being destroyed by mine vehicles. Mine vehicles also pose a threat to community health and safety in terms of dust and accidents. Poor signage.
– Community projects: mines are not investing in any development projects.
Health Issues:
– Immigrants and mineworkers are causing the resources at the local clinic being over utilized. This means that the mines are not providing adequate health for their employees. This is brought about by sub-contracting and outsourcing to labour brokers and subcontractors, it is a sophisticated way of externalizing the health and safety responsibilities of mining corporations.
– Shortages of staff and medicines at the clinic.
Royalties and Land Issues:
– The relationship between the Luka community and the Royal Bafokeng Authority (RBA) is conflictual. The community feels it does not benefit from royalties
– The community is in a land ownership consternation with the RBA.
– The community believes that it is excluded from the processes that leads to the social and labour plans and that they do not benefit from these.
Impala Mine:
There is a conflictual relationship between the community and the mining company.